פירוש על במדבר 13:20

היש בה עץ WHETHER THERE ARE TREES IN IT [OR NOT] — i.e. whether there is a righteous man amongst them who will protect them by his merits (cf. Bava Batra 15a).

השמנה היא, does it possess riches, surpluses, as Moses said in Deuteronomy 8,9 לא במסכנות תאכל בה לחם, “where you will eat bread without having to stint.”

ומה הארץ השמנה היא, and what about the land, is it fat, etc.? Did this land impart its fat to the fruit it produced without becoming impoverished, or was it such that after each harvest it became impoverished, רזה, so that it had to be given a year's rest before being sown again?

השמנה היא, to inform the Israelites on their return if the land was indeed “flowing with milk and honey,” as G’d had led them to believe.

והתחזקתם ולקחתם מפרי הארץ, “strengthen yourselves, and take from the fruit of the land.” Moses encourages the spies not to be afraid of “stealing” from the produce and thereby drawing attention to themselves as spies.

A righteous man. For it is written afterwards “you shall strengthen yourselves, and you shall take some fruit of the land,” thus there were trees. Re'm explains that if the land is fat then there would naturally be trees and he had already asked them if the land was fat or lean. Even though the Rabbis expounded that [the tree that] he was talking about [refers specifically to] Iyov (Bava Basra 15a), Rashi simply writes “a righteous man” because this is closer to the simple meaning of the verse.

V. 20. ומה הארץ וגו׳ ist endlich die Frage nach dem Bodencharakter des Landes als Quelle der Nahrung und des Nationalwohlstandes. Da die Frage: השמנה היא אם רזה die Erkundigung nach der Fruchtbarkeit oder Unfruchtbarkeit bereits erschöpfend umfasst, so dürfte schwerlich die Frage: היש בה עץ das Vorhandensein von Fruchtbäumen im Auge haben. Es würde dies auch wohl kaum einfach durch עץ ausgedrückt worden sein. Vielmehr glauben wir darin die Frage zu erblicken, ob es neben den fruchtreichen auch waldreiche Gegenden gebe. Waldgegenden werden nämlich von selbst Stätten der Industrie, da sie zu sonstigen Nahrungsquellen durch Ackerbau und Viehzucht die Gelegenheit versagen. והתחזקתם: habet den Mut, durch offenkundiges Mitnehmen von Früchten die Absicht eurer Sendung offen an den Tag zu legen. והימים ימי בכורי ענבים, also noch nicht die Zeit der Ernte und der Weinlese, in welcher somit das Abnehmen von Früchten eine andere Absicht erraten lässt.

והתחזקתם, “be of good courage.” They needed to be on their guard, seeing that it was the beginning of the harvest season and the farmers would watch their crops against thieves.

בכורי ענבים — [AND THE DAYS WERE THE DAYS OF] THE FIRSTLING OF THE GRAPES — i.e. the days when the grapes were ripening at its early stage of growth.

היש בה עץ, are there fruit trees, such as grape vines, fig trees, pomegranate trees and olive trees.

והתחזקתם, give yourselves the appearance of self confident men, men who are not afraid of anything.

First ripening. Rashi is answering the question: The Torah should have stated “ביכור ענבים” (“first ripening of the grapes” rather than “ביכורי — first ripenings”). Therefore he explains that it refers to the days in which the grapes were first ripening, referring to the days in which they ripen but not implying a plural.

היש בה עץ, is it wooded, etc.? The word עץ refers to the variety of trees to be found there. The words אם אין mean if there is any known kind of tree that cannot be found in that land? This is what Moses had in mind when he said in Deut. 8,9 that the land of Canaan was a land that lacked nothing (good).

והתחזקתם ולקחתם מפרי הארץ, do not be afraid that the local inhabitants will notice your taking some produce and will attack you on account of that.

והימים ימי בכורי הענבים, the reason the Torah mentions this is because the spies brought with them a cluster of locally grown grapes.

והימים ימי בכורי ענבים, the fruit for which the land is famous had not even fully ripened as yet as it was still early in the season. Even so, what they would see would be enough to convince them of the excellence of the land.